AREQUIPA ([.a]-r[=a]-k[=e]´p[.a]), a city of Peru, capital of a province of same name, situated in a fertile valley, 7850 feet above sea-level, at a distance of about 55 miles from the coast and on the railway which runs from its port Mollendo inland to Puno on Lake Titicaca. Behind the city rises the volcano of Arequipa, or Peak of Misti (20,328 feet). The climate is healthy but the locality is liable to earthquakes, one of which almost completely destroyed the town in 1868, after which it was rapidly rebuilt. A considerable trade is carried on through Mollendo, there being a large transit trade with the interior, and the town carries on various industries, manufacturing cotton and woollen goods, &c. It was founded in 1540. Pop. 35,000 to 40,000.--The province has an area of 21,947 sq. miles, and a pop. of 229,007.
ARETHU´SA, in Greek mythology, a daughter of Nereus and Doris, a nymph changed by Art[)e]mis into a fountain in order to free her from the pursuit of the river-god Alpheus. This fountain was said to exist in the small Island of Ortygia, near Syracuse, and was fabled to have a subterranean connection with the River Alpheus in Greece.
ARETINO (ä-r[=a]-t[=e]´nö), Guido. See _Guido_.
ARETINO, Pietro, Italian poet, born at Arezzo 1492, died at Venice 1556, the natural son of a nobleman called Luigi Bacci. He early displayed a talent for satirical poetry, and when still a young man was banished from Arezzo on account of a sonnet against indulgences. He went to Perugia, and thence to Rome (1517), where he secured the papal patronage, but subsequently lost it through writing licentious sonnets. Through the influence of the Medici family he found an opportunity to insinuate himself into the favour of Francis I. In 1527 Aretino went to Venice, where he acquired powerful friends, among them the Bishop of Vicenza. By his devotional writings he regained the favour of the Roman Court. He called himself 'the divine', and 'the scourge of princes', but he was also their abject flatterer, and that solely to obtain money. The obscenity of some of his writings was such that his name has become proverbial for licentiousness. Among them are five comedies and a tragedy.
AREZZO ([.a]-ret´s[=o]; ancient ARRETIUM), a city of Central Italy, capital of a province of the same name in Tuscany, near the confluence of the Chiana with the Arno. It has a noble cathedral, containing some fine pictures and monuments; remains of an ancient amphitheatre, &c. It was one of the twelve chief Etruscan towns, and in later times fought long against the Florentines, to whom it had finally to succumb. It is the birthplace of Mæcenas, Petrarch, Pietro Aretino, Redi, and Vasari. Pop. 50,093.--The province of Arezzo contains 1274 sq. miles, and 292,763 inhabitants (1915).